Tuesday, April 26, 2011

We'll try and get some pictures tomorrow and for the rest of our stay here. It's always nice to look at pictures instead of reading a bunch of words. The weather has been great, not too hot and not too cold, it's about time we finally have hit some nice, warm weather. When we first got here, we were bummed about the pool being out of commission, until today, when Ron found out the hot tub is still useable. That made him a happy camper!

We have been having a lot of fun here in Vegas. Today, was senior Tuesday at some of the area casinos. We met Donna & Bob at The Orleans for a $4 matinee movie and a 2 for 1 buffet lunch. Where else can you go for lunch and the movies for less than $20 for two people? Ron & I watched "Hanna", which was a very good movie and they watched "Water for Elephants", which they really liked, too. Afterwards, we came back to the campground and played cards. Tomorrow night, we are meeting them for dinner, again, at the Golden Nugget and going to a show afterwards. They have friends who live in the area and can get free tickets, what a deal, huh? We may be going to another show on Thursday night, too. So, we are really doing it all here; shows, casinos, and area attractions. We still want to go see the new bridge over the Colorado River and maybe up to the Valley of Fire State Park to explore the area.

We got in touch with our Boomer friends, Roger & Lila, who were staying out at Tecopa Hot Springs, in California, which is about 30 miles or so from Pahrump. We made a date to meet in Pahrump at one of the casinos for Easter dinner on Sunday. On our way over there, I called another good friend, Carol Lamb, to wish her a Happy Easter and asked her where they were. She told us they were at the Escapee park and would we want to get together with them, as well as another couple we also knew. So, that's what we did, we all got together for an Easter buffet and had such a good visit. It had been quite some time since we'd all been together and it was great! Afterwards, we went on over to the SKP park and met another couple we hadn't seen for awhile, boy, did we surprise them!

When we got here, we figured, since we didn't know anybody in the area, we'd just check out some of the newer casinos, look at the shops and see whatever free shows were in the area. But, the very first night we were here, we were looking on the internet and found out some fellow Boomers were in the area, looking for other Boomers. We got in touch with them and the second day we were here, Tuesday, we got together for dinner and cards. How cool is that?

The very next morning, Wednesday, Ron waited until I got up, to tell me that he thought he needed to go to the hospital because he had been experiencing some tightness in his chest for the past few days. I just looked at him, wondering what took him so long to tell me...anyway, off we went to urgent care, where they gave him an EKG and and were concerned because his oxygen level seemed to be low. They ended up sending him, by ambulance, to one of the hospitals in the area, where he stayed the rest of that day and overnight. They gave him numerous EKG's, blood tests, an echo cardiogram, the dye test through his arteries and one other test throughout the night. The next day, they determined that his heart and arteries are all doing fine and thought that maybe his acid reflux could be the cause of it all....well, that was a relief, let me tell you!

One thing I have to mention...when we were parked at Pio Pico, we were parked right under an oak tree. Not a good thing, as ants like to climb on them, so you know what that means. We had ants on top of our rig, in the awning, who knows were else. Here it is, about a month later and we still have ants! So, time to get busy and get rid of them!

We really got around the area while we were in Menifee, despite the ridiculously high fuel prices. One day, we drove up to Oak Hills, which is not very far from Victorville. Our good friend, Margie, who is trying to sell her bus, had a guy that she's been communicating with off and on, coming out to look at the bus and wanted Ron to show it to him. So, we went up there to help her out. The guy looked at everything and asked all kinds of questions. He even took a test drive at one point. He really seemed interested and told us this bus was the best one he'd seen. Well, a few days later, we found out from Margie that she sold it to him. We are so pleased, we are pretty sure he's going to join the bus club where he'll get invaluable information from our members. I know she's relieved, excited, but, a little bit sad, too. He will be coming out in June, with his family, to drive the bus home to Athens, GA.

Margie finally got around to coming to the campground to stay with us, but, instead of a few days, it was just one day, then, she was gone for the weekend, then, she came back and stayed one more day and night. The day she left to head home, we left to come here to Las Vegas.

We were having a problem with our Shurflo water pump, it wanted to run all the time whether the water was on or not. We knew there was a repair facility on the western side of the valley, in Cypress, so we drove over there one day. Went all the way over there just to find out they have relocated the repair side of their business to Indiana...they referred us to Camping World, so we went over there, just to get told they'd have to order it from Shurflo???? I'll tell ya, what a run around! We ended up calling Shurflo and we're getting the part sent to us here in Las Vegas...anyway, since we were over near Long Beach, thought we'd look up our good friends, Bruce & Kathy, who are staying at their kids for awhile, and had lunch with them. Then, a few days after that, we drove back over to that area and had dinner with some other good Boomer friends, Bill & Mary, at the chicken restaurant at Knott's Berry Farm. Yum, yum!!!! Always a good place for dinner.

When we got back, happy hour was starting, so we went down to the clubhouse to see if there were any other Boomers in the park that we hadn't seen yet. It was the end of an ice cream social where they were serving root beer floats, so we got to get some and saw Loren & Kathy Webster there. We sat through the meeting and got to go up and introduce ourselves to everyone. We made a date with Loren & Kathy to go play pegs and jokers, after our visit with Alice. We had a great visit with her, I wish we could visit our friends more often, instead of so much time passing between visits. After our visit, we went to play cards with the Websters and the guys won...this time...

I looked up on the internet just how long it takes geese eggs to hatch...alas, we won't be around to see them hatch out, it takes about a month and we only had two more weeks to go. I love watching baby geese and ducks, we'll just have to time it better next time we go there.

One of our days, we drove over to the Escapee park, Jojoba Hills, which is about 15 miles east of Temecula. We met with Betty Prange, and Marshall & Ulli Krause & Alice Zyetz. Alice wasn't feeling well enough to go to lunch, so she stayed home. We ate at a fairly new restaurant that was just down the road, called County Line BBQ. Apparently there are qute a few ranches out there that raise bison, and some other unconventional animals that you don't normally see on the normal restaurant menu. But, they also had regular beef steak and hamburgers, as well as pork and chicken. Their food was quite good and we'll probably go back there again when we're in the area.

Hi all, I am soo bad, not keeping up with the blog, I know you are wondering what we have been doing. So, tonight, I am going to get you up to date. We are now in Las Vegas, been here a week, but, I do have some pictures to post from when we were still in Menifee. Remember when I was talking about the geese? Well, there was a mating couple near our site when we first got there and within days, she had laid eggs. Ron ventured out one day, while she was off swimming in the canal and snapped a few pictures. It didn't take her very long to head straight back for her nest to protect her eggs! Ha, ha!

Sunday, April 3, 2011

Forgot to mention that the geese are a-layin' here in the park and we heard from a friend, who is also here, that a family of little babies walked through his site this morning, so I'll have to be ready with the camera to snap pictures. We, also, have a goose that just laid some eggs the other day, but, hers won't be out and about for about a month and we'll be long gone by then....just a bit of trivia...I mentioned the name of this park is Wilderness Lakes, but, there is no lake around. There is, however, numerous canals that the RV's can park next to, some sites nicer than others.

The park sells permits to fish,($8), 5 fish per permit per day. Now, here is the interesting thing, if you catch an albino fish, you will be paid $10, or any fish over 5 lbs, you will be paid $2 per lb., if you elect to release the fish in the presence of a staff person, which is a pretty good deal if you are not interested in eating it.

I think I've mentioned before while staying at this particular campground about the fact that we are right next door to a dairy and across the street is a chicken ranch. When we first got here, the smell was less than desirable, but, I didn't smell it yesterday, so maybe the winds have shifted just enough to make it a non issue.

Tomorrow, we'll try to get more pictures of the surrounding countryside at Jojoba. This particular SKP park is beautiful, it sits on a hill and has great views from the clubhouse and swimming pool area.

We're also looking forward to our friend, Margie, coming to join us later in the week and she has expressed a desire to visit the many wineries in the area, so we'll be sure to get pictures, then, too.

There was a neat exhibit of feeling like you're underwater, with underwater grasses, fish, turtles and a fisherman in a boat. There were also many exhibits of student experiments with how different chemicals interact with plant life. Also an exhibit about solar power.

We left the park last Monday and are now at Wilderness Lakes, which is near Hemet, in Riverside County. We'll be here another two weeks, and we already have plans to visit friends who are in the area. Tomorrow, we'll be headed to Jojoba Hills, which is an Escapee park, east of Temecula. A good Boomer friend, Betty, is staying there a few days, plus we want to visit other Boomers who are still at the park.

On Friday, we decided to visit a local cheese factory, but, I think we left too late to actually see them making it. I think they do that early in the morning. We did watch a short little film about the making of the cheese, though and then had some samples of the cheese, which was brie.

After leaving there, we drove over to Diamond Lake, which is the largest reservoir in southern California. It's been curious that most of the reservoirs down here in the south are off limits to swimming, yet, in the central and northern part of the state, it is allowed. Diamond Lake is huge, we drove up to the viewpoint at the western end of the lake. This lake has three earthen dams holding all that water in. You can rent fishing, bass and pontoon boats by the hour, half day or full day and on Wednesday, everything is half off. For this weekday, there were quite a number of boats on the water fishing by one of the dams. This water is shared by the residents in the Los Angeles basin and that of San Diego, also.

Guess it's about time I updated this, since it's been about a month. We spent three weeks at Pio Pico in San Diego County. Usually when we go back to where we grew up to see friends and family, we don't take pictures only because it's we don't think about it. We grew up there, we know what it looks like, not thinking that our friends who read our blog might not know. The only pictures I did take were of our campsite at Pio Pico. There's a small creek bed in back of our site and quite a few times it was full of water, most of the time, it's as dry as a bone.

About Me

We have been full timing in an RV since May of 1993, and are still loving every minute of it. There is just so much to see in this great country of ours. We now live in our '59 Flxible VL-100 bus conversion and although it isn't totally done, we can still travel around in relative comfort.